Holidays can bring joy and happiness to your renters. It can also bring extra to-dos and — what do we do this year? — sort of questions to property managers. So, we have you covered if you enjoy party planning around the holidays or need extra help.
Use these three easy-to-implement Halloween ideas used by a former Property Manager, Lauren Gebhardt (now the Director of Client Success Operations at Realync), and a Realync Client Success Specialist, Hannah Robinson.
Halloween Goodie Bag Gifts
The more free items you give away, the better engagement you’ll see this Halloween. Halloween goodie bags filled with candy is a great way to make your renters happy. But if you want to level up this year’s goodie bag, consider these options below.
Add a small QR code on an item or piece of paper with a video message from the on-site team saying, “Trick or treat! It’s a treat to have you a part of our community. So much so, we have an extra surprise for you.” Then, you could have a scented candle ready in the office for those that watched the message. You’d also see if the creative QR code idea worked by reviewing those video analytics!
“I love a good scavenger hunt! For an entire day around the community, you could host a “find the skeleton, get a treat” scavenger hunt. You’d hide the skeletons around the community, and if they find one, they bring it down to the office, so they have to interact with your team throughout the day. This way, you can get the live reaction of the person who wins the goodie bag,” said Lauren.
You may have questions about what to include in the goodie bag outside of candy and candles. “You could have nearby restaurant coupons in your goodie bags to familiarize your renters with the area. It’s also a chance for your team to build partnerships with nearby businesses,” said Hannah. “With the QR code idea, you could have it linked to a playlist of videos from your leasing team. They could give short introductions into who they are so you can get renters more familiar with the on-site team.”
You could get super creative and have one goodie bag with the “golden ticket” for a $100 Visa gift card to get more engagement out of your renters.
Host a Halloween Happy Hour
Again, renters love free items, especially food and drinks. A Halloween happy hour would be another great option to engage your renters. This Halloween, partner with a local brewery and give out ciders and other Halloween-inspired drinks.
“Happy Hours are always a good idea, I enjoyed making them interactive to force people to get to know their neighbors. You could make it a trivia event happy hour and have the theme around Halloween movies. Then, you’d have them all join teams. Teams with the highest score at the end would win prizes for 1st and 2nd place. Your prizes could be gift cards to the brewery that sponsored the event,” said Lauren.
Don’t forget to record bits and pieces of the event and post them on social media. You could also send a follow-up video of it to attendees and non-attendees. Be sure to tailor the body message of the email to fit both audiences. One email can do the trick, so it doesn’t take much effort on your end. Here’s an example of what I mean:
Hi [name],
Thank you to those who attended our Halloween happy hour last night! For those that weren’t able to make it, we know you didn’t ghost us 😉 and had other obligations. But we missed you!
If you liked the cider and you’re curious about what brewery we partnered with for the event, our friends at [name of business] joined us last night. Guess what! They’re giving a 10% discount to all [community name] renters this weekend.
Here’s a fun wrap-up video of the event last night!
[Add your video]
Stay tuned for more spooky surprises this month.
Your Leasing Team.
Halloween-Themed Contest
Friendly competitions never hurt anyone, right? I bet you’d be surprised by the number of renters you have who work in sales and love a good competition. A Halloween-themed contest would be perfect for engaging your renters if it doesn’t require too much time.
“For a Halloween contest, you could do: Best Dressed. We did this, and it was a huge success one year. We made four different categories, and the guests had to vote on their favorites, so it was a way for them to bring a friend or two and get people in the door to see how amazing the community was in general. Eventually, a couple of attendees moved into our community because of that Halloween party. Pick four themes, such as Best Scary, Best Cuddly, Best Funny, and Best group costumes, and have prizes for them each,” said Lauren.
Hannah added, “Another thing you could do is a pet contest and people would submit pictures of their pets in costumes and post them on social media with a hashtag.”
Once you pick a winner, don’t forget to get a video and post it on social media. This could make your renter’s day as people don’t always win contests often!
Remember not to ghost your video efforts this month! Confirm if your video-creation skills are on track with our free, online micro-course (80+ multifamily professionals have already enrolled).
Renter Engagement Efforts
These gestures can go a long way for renters, and they shouldn’t take too much of your time. The more engaged you are with your renters, the more likely they will positively review your on-site team in those renter satisfaction surveys. It’s a win-win situation for both you and your renters.
